America's Best Ski Towns

With high altitude and low attitude, America’s best ski towns offer plenty of fun beyond the slopes.

Taos, NM

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At the turn of the 20th century, artists Bert Phillips and Ernest Blumenschein stopped to have a broken wagon wheel replaced in Taos and decided to stay. Then socialite Mabel Dodge Luhan brought well-known artists like Ansel Adams, Willa Cather, and Georgia O’Keeffe, who fell for the drama of this desert town surrounded by the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. The art-colony spirit lives on in Taos, where $25 gets you access to five local museums, and the walkable downtown is rife with art galleries and adobe inns with kiva fireplaces. After a day out skiing, retreat to El Monte Sagrado Living Resort & Spa, where the treatments include Life-Reading Massage and Reiki.

America's Best Ski Towns

Taos, NM

At the turn of the 20th century, artists Bert Phillips and Ernest Blumenschein stopped to have a broken wagon wheel replaced in Taos and decided to stay. Then socialite Mabel Dodge Luhan brought well-known artists like Ansel Adams, Willa Cather, and Georgia O’Keeffe, who fell for the drama of this desert town surrounded by the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. The art-colony spirit lives on in Taos, where $25 gets you access to five local museums, and the walkable downtown is rife with art galleries and adobe inns with kiva fireplaces. After a day out skiing, retreat to El Monte Sagrado Living Resort & Spa, where the treatments include Life-Reading Massage and Reiki.

“There’s nothing like a hot tub and ski-in, ski-out lodging, but a great ski town needs more than that,” says Steve Kopitz, founder of specialty gear shop Skis.com.

We certainly won’t argue with a man who has traveled to more than 40 ski towns across America. As Kopitz suggests, our favorites not only deliver the bars, restaurants, and adventures that winter vacationers want, but also have a certain small-town appeal, a sense of history, and the carefree vibe that brought downhillers there in the first place.

“The single thing that makes a ski town is authenticity,” adds Dan Sherman, managing director of marketing for Ski.com, which customizes ski trips. “People go on a cruise or beach vacation because they want to get away. Skiers are different. They’re going on a ski vacation because it’s part of who they are. It’s a very special club.”

But you don’t need to be a part of that black-diamond club to appreciate all that these ski towns have to offer. Visitors to Bend, OR, for example, can sample more than 12 microbreweries in between runs or go rock-climbing in Smith Rock State Park. In Taos, NM, take shelter from the cold in galleries and museums that display masterpieces by the likes of Ansel Adams and Georgia O’Keeffe—artists who found inspiration in the surrounding desert and Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Or simply lounge by the kiva fireplace in your adobe inn.

Kids have their pick among several ice-skating rinks in Truckee, CA, while parents can experience the country’s only ski-in distillery, High West Distillery and Saloon, not far from historic Main Street in Park City, UT. These towns did not just have histories before the first lifts ever got there. They honored them.

Sure, there are other great places where you can base a ski trip, such as Salt Lake City, which provides easy access to the renowned Brighton, Solitude, Alta, and Snowbird resorts, or Aspen, CO, which went from modest silver-mining roots to a swanky favorite among the rich and famous.

We’ve set our sights, however, on the towns that prove ski vacations aren’t just about the slopes or mega-resorts or chic chalets. They are about embracing a lifestyle—and they are just plain fun.